What Happens When People with Depression Gather Online?

Abstract

Depression is a common mental disease that impacts people of all ages and backgrounds. To meet needs that cannot otherwise be met, people with depression or who tend to suffer from depression often gather in online depression communities. However, since joining a depression community exposes members to the depression of others, the impact of such communities is not entirely clear. This study therefore explored what happens when people with depression gather in Sina Weibo’s Depression Super Topic online community. Through website crawling, postings from Depression Super Topic were compared with postings from members’ regular timelines with respect to themes, emotions disclosed, activity patterns, and the number of likes and comments. Topics of distilled postings covering support, regulations, emotions and life sharing, and initiating discussions were then coded. From comparison analysis, it was found that postings in the Depression Super Topic community received more comments and disclosed more emotions than regular timelines and that members were more active in the community at night. This study offers a picture of what occurs when people with depression gather online, which helps better understand their issues and therefore provide more targeted support.

“No man is an island”: How Chinese netizens use deliberate metaphors to provide “depression sufferers” with social support

“… 56 This population was selected because the “Depression Super Topic” is a highly popular and representative online depression community in China, boasting over 300,000 fans and nearly 1,000,000 posts. 57 More importantly, the “Warm Supporting” section serves as a key and public platform for “depression sufferers” (Through pre-screening, we found that not all the individuals participating in the Chinese online community had medical certificates but also received support, therefore we name the whole group with quotation marks) to receive online social support and the data in this platform is public-accessible. Collecting data from the population in this section enables us to target more comments with supportive elements.…”